CHAPTER SUMMARY
The questers continue their journey. The Grangers are trapped in a blizzard.
BEGINNING NOTES
Chapter Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Content Warning: Cursing, Rape/Sexual Harassment (mentioned only), Mild Racism
Word Count: 3772
Roszí is pronounced ROW-shee.
Merda is shit in Italian. Just FYI.
And all the characters are owned by JK Rowling, or Rick Riordan.
Credits at the end.
____________________NICO____________________
***
A four-year-old boy heard the sound of a bus's engine the same moment Mamma gave him the news.
"I won't go! I won't go!" Nico screamed. "I won't leave Venice!"
"Nico," Mamma chided. "You're a big boy, my little angel, you can do anything, even if it's hard."
"I WON'T GO!" he shrieked. "I'll run away! I'll live with the orphans! Do you want me to live with the orphans?!" His cheeks were hot, red, and covered in tears. When Mamma ignored him, he only screamed louder. "You hate me! I hate you! You hate me!" He collapsed on the floor and screamed, drumming his fists on the ground.
"All right," Mamma said. "Hmm, Nonno, will you get a bag? Nico wants to live with the orphans."
Nonno complied. Nico kept on screaming because he knew Mamma wouldn't let him live with the orphans. Nonno came back with a knapsack. Mamma hummed as she gathered the items. "Well, Nico, what will you need? Here is some food, and your blanket, why don't you run upstairs and take Ele from your bed? I will go to the water closet and get you a bar of soap."
"I'LL LIVE WITH ORPHANS!" Nico screamed at the top of his lungs. "I HATE THE AOSTA VALLEY! I WON'T GO! I WON'T GO! I WON'T GO! I WON'T GO! I WON'T GO!"
"Grandpa? Will you get Nico's clothes and Ele? I need to finish quickly so he can get to the orphans before nighttime."
Nonno returned with the items. The bag was packed. Nico kept throwing his tantrum. "Up you go," Mamma said as she lifted him off the floor, kicking and screaming. She wrestled the knapsack into his arms and ushered him out the door. "Out, out. I'm sure you will find the orphans before the sun sets."
Mamma pushed him onto the street. He looked back at her, standing in the doorway with Bianca crying and clutching her leg. "Nico!" Bianca cried. "Nico, don't go!"
But Nico made up his mind. With tears in his eyes, he marched out the door and followed the brick steps to the cobblestone road. That is, until he got to the canal outside his house. He stopped.
"Well?" Mamma asked from the doorway. "On you go, Nico."
"I can't!" Nico sniffed, wiping his nose with his hand. "I'm not allowed to cross the street by myself!"
***
"Nico, watch out!" someone screamed.
"--oh, merda!" Nico ducked just in time to avoid the cockatrice's attempted lizard-tail-to-the-face.
That had started happening more and more. Since his cutting was so closely related to his memories of his family, he spent a lot of time on them with Dr. Solberg. Memories came easier now--Dr. Solberg said that was because being so hung up on his family created a wall that's now being broken or some other therapist-y reason Nico didn't pay much attention to. Unfortunately, most of the time, his memories resurfaced when something reminded him of something from his past, and his ADHD brought him on some thought tangent. It was annoying since his ADHD was supposed to be helpful in battle, not cause him to lapse in consciousness, but with all the other stuff his sick brain liked to do, he guessed he got one of the defective parts of that particular disorder.
A monster attack on a New York City bus isn't the time to black out, you idiot.
Nico jumped on top of one of the few bus seats left unscathed from the five cockatrices attacking them. He grabbed onto the nearest pole and jumped to avoid the monster's violent peck from its rooster beak. He pushed himself onto the wall and ran a few steps, then wall-jumped off. By way of the pole, he spun in the air, and he got the stupid monster square in the eyes. It fell back long enough for Nico to slice through its beak like butter with his Stygian Iron sword. It wailed in pain.
"Damn to-- ahh!" A second cockatrice rammed its talons Nico's leg before he could finish the curse. Nico fell to the ground... where the first cockatrice was. And it wasn't happy about the whole beak thing. It ran on its dragon-like legs with its clawed fingers aiming straight for his neck. Nico scrambled back but soon hit the wall of the bus.
"Merda, merda, merda, merda..." Nico held up his new Celestial Bronze shield just in time to miss the cockatrice's fatal blow.
I owe you one, Leo. Happy holidays.
With a twist of his fingers, a shadow-shield trapped his enemy in a makeshift cage. Nico swiped his sword down a tiny slot in the shadow-shield, and the trapped cockatrice was nothing more than a pile of dust.
He stood. The Hunters stood in formation in the back, firing volleys of arrows at three monsters, but they were flying around so quickly that most of the arrows hit non-lethal areas and did nothing more than annoy them. Al engaged the fourth cockatrice right behind Nico, firing a series of multicolored spells while he dodged the talons of the beast. They had to be resistant to magic because while the spells slowed it down, it wasn't as dusty as anyone wanted.
Nico ran to the front of the bus where the mortal bus driver was still chugging along, unaware of anything happening. "Sorry!" he told the driver, then knock the guy unconscious and threw him on the floor. Now to put Paul's driving lessons to the test.
Thank Artemis (and that was the only time Nico would ever say that) there wasn't a car in sight leading to the George Washington Bridge. Nico slammed on the gas, and the speedometer needle increased from forty to one hundred. The EZ pass velcroed to the window made the toll booth's divider rise much faster than normal, and Nico got through to New Jersey.
Nico glanced behind him to see Thalia wrestling with a cockatrice who wanted to take her bow. Two of the other hunters were jabbing their hunting knives into its back, but it was hard to avoid the spiky mane.
"Look at the road!" one of the Hunters barked.
Right.
Nico turned back to the road.
Isaac Newton.
The thought popped in Nico's head unannounced.
Um... what?
"Repeat after me. An object in motion will stay in motion until acted upon by an outside force. An object at rest will stay at rest until acted upon by an outside force."
Thank you Physics I!
Nico started to swerve. Should he be crossing willy-nilly into other lanes? No, but there was nobody else there.
The plan worked. The cockatrices were flying independently of the bus; they crashed into the metal walls each time Nico swerved. Unfortunately, the volleys of arrows were also in the air, and Nico narrowly avoided one whizzing past his ear. It hit the front window, but the glass didn't break, thank the gods.
"No bows! Knives out!" Thalia ordered. The metallic thunks of the cockatrices were replaced by the flashing lights of body-binding curses and hunting knives stabbing wailing monsters. By the time they were over the bridge, five piles of dust littered the aisle.
"Watch out!" Al yelled.
Actually, four piles of dust littered the aisle, because the last, squawking cockatrice dug its talon through the driver's seat and into Nico's right shoulder. Nico screamed in pain. Al hit it with Avada Kedavra seconds later, but it wasn't enough. The bus jerked a little too hard to the right and tipped over. What was once the right wall was now the floor, and thirty-something hunters plus two boys were bruised, dazed, and had the wind knocked out of them.
Oh, and the bus was totaled.
"Imbecile!" Roszí shouted at him.
Nico gritted his teeth. "Fuck you!"
____________________THALIA____________________
Thalia stood in the main area of a ski lodge. It was on the smaller side, but cozy and warm. A living area consisted of a burning and crackling fireplace, two tan couch chairs, and a throw rug underneath them. Behind it was a small kitchen and dining table. The front door stood to the right of it all, and a hallway leading to the bedrooms and bathrooms was just behind the front door.
A family of eight lounged in the main area. Two middle-aged men chatted as one boiled some water on a gas stove in the kitchen. Two women sipped tea at the table. Three kids sat on the floor, doing a puzzle. Another girl curled up with a book by the crackling fire.
The snow outside was piled so high that it covered half their window. The blizzard was still going strong enough that Thalia could see the flurries despite how dark the post-sunset afternoon was.
"Will we be snowed in, Sadie?" the blond woman asked.
"Most likely," Sadie said.
The lights flickered, then shut off. The only light left in the room was the fireplace and the tiny flames of the gas stove's burner.
"Well, there goes the power," the man by the pot said. "Hermione, can you get the candles from the closet?"
"All right," Hermione said, closing her book. She put it on the fireplace mantle and gingerly walked to the hallway. No wonder, it must've been pitch black over there. "I have them!" she called.
"Tanisha! Jeremy! Help Hermione light the candles," Sadie instructed. "April, why don't you bunch up some aluminum foil so the candles have somewhere to go." The three kids stood.
"Where's it, Mommy?" April asked.
Her mother opened the drawer and handed it to her. Soon, a few candles lit the room.
"Can I go to my room?" Hermione asked. "I, um, want to get some rest."
One of the men, presumably her father, nodded. "Take some extra blankets from the linen closet. There's a flashlight on the floor of the coat closet, too."
Hermione walked down the hall to her bedroom. Flashlight in hand, she rummaged through her suitcase until she found a very long, very thick book. She went to a page she'd bookmarked with a post-it note and read. Her face got graver each passing second. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I feel like an idiot," she whispered, "but..." she glanced back at the book, checking something. "Hey, Hecate? I wish I knew what was happening. I know you have better things to do, but you're my goddess and patron. I don't want last year to happen again. Whatever's going on, please put a stop to it, for all our sakes." Tears fell down her cheeks. "Harry died to save us. Don't let that be in vain."
Thalia woke to find Ianthe leaning over her, ferociously tapping her shoulder. "Thalia?"
Thalia sat up slowly, rubbing her neck as she yawned. "How long was I out?"
"Only a minute." She cast a sideways glance to Nico, currently dragging the mortal bus driver out of a hole that used to be the front window. The door was blocked by the pavement of the New Jersey Turnpike. " That one knocked the bus over."
"Stop it, Ianthe, it was more complicated than that and you know it."
"How can you defend him?!"
"Boys are immature. Be better than them. I know you are."
Ianthe huffed but didn't say anything else. She lifted Thalia and helped her through the temporary door. They were the last ones to leave the bus.
"Is anyone hurt?" Thalia asked. From the corner of her eye, she saw Alabaster handing Nico a tiny vial of blood-red liquid. "Besides Nico?" A few of the Hunters shook their heads, and a few more said "no." "Good," Thalia said. "Okay, new plan, girls! We have to move quickly, and we don't have Lady Artemis. There's a reason only three half-bloods go on most quests: there's too much magic in the air; every monster within half a mile can probably smell us.
"Ianthe and Roszí, stay with me. Everyone else goes straight north to Nunavut, and we'll meet you there. We have to separate, or the monsters will slow us down." Many of her sisters protested. "It sucks splitting up, but any second we spend fighting is a second we lose. We could've used that bus much longer if the cockatrices didn't attack. I know we're all good fighters, but we only have twenty-three hours left. Five minutes of fighting could be life and death.
"Yasmina, you're acting first lieutenant until we rendezvous. Roszí, Ianthe, get us the supplies we'll need. Two minutes for goodbyes, max. We gotta go."
Thalia inched closer to Nico and Alabaster to make sure they were okay. There was gauze on Nico's shoulder and leg now, but he looked okay otherwise. "It's a blood-replenishing potion," Alabaster was telling him. "After the stone slide, I figured better safe than sorry."
Nico seemed far away. "Cinque andranno a ovest verso la dea in catene. Contare le catene metaforica?"
It was under his breath, but she heard. He was talking to himself. Thalia didn't like that.
"What?" Alabaster asked.
Nico said nothing. Even without context, Thalia could guess at the Italian translation.
'Five shall go west to the goddess in chains.' Bianca died on her way over. Now there's five of us heading west to a goddess a slave to--or chained by--Hecate.
The five of them were silent as the walked west. Within a few minutes, they crossed a river into Hackensack, New Jersey. "We can rent a car," Alabaster offered. "I can do some magic, convince the salesperson we're twenty-five? Nico can drive."
"No." Four voices chirped in unison.
At least Nico can agree with us on something.
"Then what's the plan?" Alabaster asked.
"The time, Nico?" Thalia asked. Nico tossed her his iPod without a word. She checked the screen. "It's 5:43," she said. "Sunset's at 4:28 tomorrow. At the rate we're going, if I did my math right, we can cover about one hundred miles every hour, maybe one-twenty if we don't hit any trouble."
Alabaster whistled. "I'm liking this blessing."
Thalia ignored the evil eye Roszí was giving Alabaster. "We'll stay in the woods, cover our tracks, keep our heads down. Alabaster, the last thing we need is another tight space to get trapped in."
They were able to get to Akron, Ohio before they ran into a problem. Her hunters were leading the way to get as far from the boys as possible. The boys trailed in the back. "Thalia," Alabaster called. He jogged up to her side. "We have to break camp. I didn't realize because he wasn't complaining, but Nico's in a bad state. His leg wound opened up again. I gave him another potion but, at this rate, he'll be crippled by the time we reach Cheyenne."
"Di Immortalis! " Thalia cursed. "Can't you stitch him up with magic?"
Alabaster shook his head. "I'm not a son of Apollo. I've already done what I can, but it isn't enough. The wound's deep, really deep. The adrenaline of battle kept him on his feet before I got to him, but his muscle's punctured and one of his ligaments snapped. If he were in my mother's lands, they'd've replaced his leg with a peg-leg by now. I wasn't kidding about being crippled."
"It's because he's mortal," Thalia realized. "He gets it worse in battle." Alabaster nodded. "Remind me why Persephone's doing this to him again?"
"Because he's the only one who would go."
"Ianthe!" Thalia called despite herself. This was a disaster waiting to happen, but there was nothing she could do.
Ianthe jogged over to her. Roszí stopped walking, as did Nico. "What's up, Thalia?"
"Don't kill me, but I need you to deal with Nico. We're gonna have to carry him the rest of the way if you don't."
"I'm fine!" Nico protested.
"No, you're not," Thalia snapped. "Your leg's almost torn off, I can see it from here."
Nico took a few steps to try and prove he was all right. Thalia suspected he meant to run, but his leg wouldn't let him. He grimaced with every step even going at an average pace but was able to keep himself from making a sound. It was stupid but admirable. Ianthe was almost impressed with him. Almost.
"Sit," she instructed. Nico kept walking.
Nico shot her a number ten death stare, the type Thalia thought only she could give. Ianthe refused to wilt. Nico was distracted long enough that Roszí caught him off guard and could throw a hunting net over him. It was only after he fell to the ground, tangled in the net, that he stopped moving. He grunted with pain when his leg hit the dirt, and Thalia suspected he'd be yowling if the Hunters weren't around.
"Do as Ianthe instructs," Roszí growled. She kept him in the net a little longer than was necessary, but Thalia was just happy that they agreed to help him without protest. Keeping it civil, however, was too much to ask. Nico argued over every little thing, Ianthe was rougher than she needed to be, and Roszí looked downright murderous the entire time.
"There," Ianthe huffed. "You're done."
Nico stood on a new leg. Ianthe did her work well. "Let's go," he said.
"Thou shalt not command us!" Roszí hissed. "And thank thy doctor, boy. She saved thee from a trip to Hades."
"I'm fine," Nico retorted.
"Thy willfulness slowed us!" Roszí accused. "We hath lost ten minutes healing thee!"
Nico clenched his fists. "You wanna go?! I'll show you how well I heal."
Alabaster grabbed Nico's arm and swung him around. "You want to stop throwing a tantrum?"
Nico shoved Alabaster off of him so hard that the son of Hecate ate dirt. Thalia's eyes widened. Whatever he'd said had seriously set Nico off, and she did not like where this was going. She jumped in the middle of them and put her hands on her sisters' chests to stop them from advancing. "Break it up, now!"
"I won't be told what to do by some gypsy!" Nico shouted.
Thalia slowly lowered her hands. "What did you just say?" she growled. "Don't you dare." Clouds rolled in. Lightning struck. Thunder boomed. "This isn't nineteen-forty, di Angelo. Cool off, now! And shut your mouth!"
Nico punched her square in the jaw. Thalia again held both of her sisters back from retaliation. She spat some blood and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. They stared each other down.
"You're right. No more tantrums." He marched into the distance. Thalia could vaguely see his outline on the horizon.
Thalia helped Alabaster up. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," he said, brushing some dirt off his pants. "Are you?"
Thalia laughed, but it was hollow. "I've had worse."
"That spineless little brat!" Ianthe exclaimed. "How dare he!"
"Stop. With. The. Bickering!" Thalia shouted. "You both are as much to blame as he is! You can't constantly rag on someone and not expect them to fight back! Lady Artemis commanded us to escort him to Montana, like it or not, and that's what we're going to do! The world is in jeopardy, and you're acting like toddlers! You swore an oath to our Lady, and if you don't shape up I will personally make sure she knows, and you'll have to deal with her wrath!"
Her voice rang out and echoed over the trees. Knowing her luck, monsters would hear and come for them, but, at this point, Thalia didn't care. She was so done. "Look," she said. "I don't like him. I never have. But he has been through the wringer, and I respect him for it. The fact that he's sane is a miracle, and, for all I care, he can act like a jackass with all the heroic shit he's done and fucked-up shit he's gone through. So, I'm gonna find some love for him until sundown. You better too."
Alabaster was sitting on a fallen tree nearby, pretending he didn't exist. Roszí and Ianthe stood between him and Thalia, eyes on the ground like a reprimanded child. "Are you going to tell them or should I?" Alabaster asked.
Thalia wanted that sphinx or manticore to attack already and spare her from her first lieutenant duties, but her prayer was greeted with nothing but the wind whistling through the trees. "I'll do it," she forced herself to say. "They've proven that they won't listen to you."
If Roszí or Ianthe wanted to protest, they kept their mouths shut.
Alabaster stood. "I'll go check on him, leave you guys alone." The three of them watched him walk to the tree Nico was sulking in, and climbed up into the canopy of leaves.
"He hates us," Thalia told them. "He honest-to-gods hates us. Ianthe, you weren't with us yet. I don't know how much you remember, Roszí, you spent most of those days in Cabin Eight. It was seven years ago, before the Second Titan War. Atlas captured Lady Artemis and our old first lieutenant Zoë Nightshade went to save her."
Thalia bit her lip. She didn't like thinking about that quest. "Before our Lady was taken, my two of my friends and I found Nico. He was an orphan, Zeus killed his mother, and he was taken from his home in Italy to America and forced into the Lotus Hotel and Casino, a place where time stands still, for seventy years, all because the Big Three were having a catfight. He was born before World War Two, that's how old he really is. His sister Bianca raised him, and she joined the Hunt the same day they found out they were demigods. Bianca went with Zoë, and both of them died. The Hunters are a death sentence to him, and our Lady is the executioner. I'm not going to go into his sob story anymore, but trust me, he's had a hard life and never recovered from Bianca's death, as far as I know. You have to cut him some slack. Please, for me."
He left. It took a long time for anyone to say anything.
"I was bad-mannered," Roszí admitted. "I shan't forgive him, but our Lady sent us on this quest. I shall not disrespect her again."
"Good," Thalia said. "Ianthe?"
"Fine," she managed. "I don't have to like him, but I don't want him dead, either. It's not worth the world."
"Exactly," Thalia agreed. "Thank you."
"Guys!" Alabaster came running.
Thalia felt a pit in her stomach. "Let me guess; he ran off?"
"And, this time, no one can blame me."
END NOTES
I have Nico speaking a lot of Italian here because Nico's flashback was in Italian, and according to my bilingual teacher, you tend to think in whatever language you were last speaking in. I didn't put his thoughts in Italian because, like the dream, they're in his head so it doesn't matter. But he's speaking here.
Also if you were curious "Cinque andranno a ovest verso la dea in catene. Contare le catene metaforica?" translates to "Five shall go west to the goddess in chains. Do metaphorical chains count?" I didn't translate it in the story since we aren't in Nico's perspective, so Thalia wouldn't know what it meant.
Sources:
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Cockatrice
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockatrice
This week's beta commentary:
STORY: And this time, no one can blame me.
SARA: me when the cat knocks over a dish rack when i'm asleep
SARA: long story short - orange cans sound like food cans to a cat. interesting things can happen.
MELODY: Also me when my dog jumps on my bed and throws my pillows on the floor.
Credits:
Melody Rose - Author (melody0rose.tumblr.com)
Sara - Beta Reader (http://icomparemyselftoyou.tumblr.com)
Please comment so I know what you think! See you next time!